The Ukrainian President and authorities claim that their security service and Ministry of Defense have facts at their disposal that the Malaysian Boing-777 airplane was shot by the separatists in the East of Ukraine. The officials of Self-Proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic contradict, stating that the crash of the Malaysian airplane traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is caused by the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces.

One of the reasons for violence, physical or moral pressure exerted in the Armenian Police is the current system of evaluating the work effectiveness. Very often in order to ensure a high index of crime disclosure the detainees are forced to admit such crimes they have not committed.

Child protection in Armenia needs radical changes. According to the experts, as a result, children will have an opportunity to live in families or close to family environments instead of growing up in residential institutions.

The three-level system of parole involving the administration of penitentiary institutions, independent committee and court needs improvement. The current system seems problematic. This statement was made by the members of the Group of Public Observers Conducting Public Monitoring of Penitentiary Institutions and Bodies of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia at the Media Center hosted press conference.

The lawyers of Shant Harutyunyan and 13 other defendants demand appropriate trial facilities which will enable their representatives to fulfill their mission and their relatives to follow the trial process at the court hall.

The civic initiative protesting against the decision of the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission on launching the review process for the electricity tariffs claims that the current tariff cannot be increased, urging the Commission to define the price setting policy.

At June 8 local elections no serious acts of electoral fraud and violence were observed. However, the present situation does not imply a democratic election process since elections are not to be limited to the voting day only. In general, the elections were not competitive, with 2 or 3 candidates nominated in most polling stations.

Only 10 Armenian citizens will be traveling to Brazil to attend the 20th FIFA World Cup Brazil. The Embassy of Brazil in Armenia has so far received and processed 10 visa applications, all of which are approved, with two visa applicants winning a World Cup tour and one applicant going to assist the organizers as a volunteer.

The lawyers of Vardan Petrosyan (whohas been under arrestfor over 6 months already) qualify hispretrial detention as an unreasonable act and transgression of the presumption of innocence principle. Therefore, they intend to apply to the European Court of Human Rights.

To resolve the “March First” case the Special Investigation Service ought to involve in the case a number of Armenian and Karabakh high-level officials, militaries and the then marz governors, as well as carry out a comprehensive public investigation into the country’s deadly post-election unrest, subsequently reporting the findings to the public.